How to Scale Without Losing Your Soul (Or Your Sanity): The $30K MRR Trap

In my newsletter last week, I wrote about my 4-day work week schedule:

An hour after sending it, I got this text from a Facebook ad freelancer I’ve known for a while, a former coworker from my days at Mutesix.

He’s a really smart marketer that recently quit his 9-5 agency job and got flooded with referrals when the word spread he was up for hire.

But here's the thing – his text message perfectly illustrates the biggest trap in freelancing: success can quickly start to feel like a trap.

• He hit a crazy revenue goal, but he’s working 80-hour weeks.
• He’s making great money, but he can't take days off anymore.
• He’s built a business, but somehow he’s also built himself a very expensive prison.

Sound familiar? Let’s break it down.

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The first problem: AOV is too low.

My first guess was he spread too thin and had a ton of clients paying him a small retainer each. I was right:

Here's what I told him, and what I'm telling you: “Statistically, the more clients you have, the more fires you have.”

In general, I like to work with fewer clients, but charge a higher retainer. I’ll take three $10k clients over ten $3k clients anytime.

Of course, that increases the risk when you lose a big client of losing a third of your income. But statistically, you just keep those bigger retainer clients longer because they usually have deeper pockets, more stable businesses. I just find it to be a little bit more straightforward.

The math is simple: Would you rather manage 10 clients at $3K each, or 3 clients at $10K each?

Same revenue. One-third of the headaches.

Your action step: Stop onboarding everyone you come across and learn how to say no. Focus your efforts on clients that are worth your time, even if that means waiting a little bit more to find the right fit. Typically, the smaller the clients, the more red flags you can spot.

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The exception to the rule: The $1,000-Per-Hour Client

I have one client that pays me $1,000 a month. And that's literally because I do one call every other week and it's a 30-minute call that usually only lasts 15 minutes. So it's like 30 minutes a month of calls, plus 30 minutes of looking at the ad account – that's less than an hour a month. Pays me a grand.

That's $1,000 an hour. I'll take that.

But anything else that pays you $1,500 or $2,000 that you spend too much time on? Either revisit the scope or figure out how to cut them.

Here's the uncomfortable truth: If you're drowning at $30K MRR, the problem isn't that you need more help. The problem is that you're working with the wrong clients at the wrong prices.

Your action step: Audit your current clients, and calculate a rough revenue per hour per client. How many hours do you roughly spend a week working on each individual client? Divide that by their respective retainers. You might be surprised by what you discover. Read about how to track your time here.

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The $10/Hour Task Audit That Changed Everything

At a certain scale, you really want to audit your time. When I hit a million bucks a year in revenue with 50-60 clients at Betterly, I had a lot of random shit to manage. So one day, me and my right hand Jared did a whiteboard session and created what we call the "$10/hour tasks."

We literally wrote down on the whiteboard every $10/hour task we were doing on a daily basis:

• Replying to emails
• Scheduling posts on Instagram
• Writing copy for cold emails
• Onboarding clients on random platforms
• Account receivable filing
• Building ads
• Creating reports

Literally everything we could think of that we were doing on a daily basis that was sucking our time.

There's always gonna be stuff you can't outsource. Like my newsletter – I tried outsourcing it early on, it just doesn't work. It needs my personal touch. But there's stuff you can definitely outsource, and these are the ones you want to figure out.

Your action step: With $1.5K a month, you can get a part-time VA that can handle most of these tasks. Try to find one via recommendation. Otherwise, hire one on onlinejobs.ph or Athena.

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Your Step-by-Step Action Plan

Step 1: Fix Your Client Mix

You need better clients, not more clients. Focus on high-paying, successful companies as opposed to mom and pop companies who can’t afford your expertise.

Raise their rates or let them go. I know it's scary when you're looking at $30K in revenue, but trust me – losing 3 low-value clients and keeping 3 high-value ones will change your life.

Do pro-bono work only after you’ve fixed your schedule.

Step 2: Do Your Own $10/Hour Task Audit

Grab a whiteboard (or Google Doc) and write down everything you do daily that's sucking your time. I bet building ads is one of those for you. Use AI tools to build reports – I have a big client myself, I was building reports every week. It was a time suck. I got Supermetrics and started automating my dashboards.

Step 3: Build SOPs Then Hire a VA

It all comes down to building the systems. Build an SOP for each task. Make it very clear with your clients: "Hey, I've got a VA." Don't spend more time than you already have trying to find a VA online. Work with people we know that have VAs that work.

Step 4: Replace Meetings with Loom Videos

Instead of doing a meeting every week that lasts an hour, do Loom videos every other week. So you do a meeting every other week, and on the off week, you just do a Loom video. Looms solve 90% of client calls, in my experience. They watch it, and they're happy. They slide you back with feedback or "Great, thanks."

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Why This Actually Works

When I implemented this system, three things happened:

1. I got my time back – No more 2 AM report building or Sunday email marathons
2. My work quality improved – I could focus on strategy instead of busy work
3. My clients were happier – They got faster responses and better results

The counterintuitive truth: Sometimes you need to spend money to make time. And time is the only thing you can't get more of.

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The Bottom Line

• You don't have a hiring problem. You have a pricing problem.
• You don't need more people. You need better clients.
• You don't need to work harder. You need to work smarter.

The goal isn't to build a fancy agency. The goal is to build a sustainable freelance life. And sometimes, the best way to grow your business is to make it smaller.

Remember: You started freelancing for freedom. Don't let success steal that from you.

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